Warbird Information Exchange

British carriers also had a different set of operating expectations than the American "fleet" carriers. British carriers would be operating in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, often well within range of land based aircraft, increasing the odds of enemy air attack and the likelihood that the carrier would be hit. They also were not expected to cover the same kind of distances as the American fleet carriers did and had smaller fuel bunkers. That enabled their carriers to have more armor incorporated into their design, and they needed it! The additional armor clearly saved the HMS Victorious after it has heavily damaged escorting a convoy to Malta. A wooden-decked American carrier would have been far more severely damaged, and possibly sunk. It also saved the British carriers from the catastrophic damage when they were struck by kamikazes.

All sides learned the folly of wooden deck carriers. The Japanese mega-carrier Shinano, based on the Yamato-class hull, had an armored deck, as did the American Midway class (IIRC), and the 1950s Essex class modernizations incorporated armored decks.

Some of the Essex class had thin metal laid over the wood. It was more to
allow for the higher speed and weight of jets than protection. I have "deck
wood" from LEX and have walked YKTN's deck. Without question, they
were still wood. Heard it both ways about Oriskany............

Owen

While the larger Fleet Carriers of the Royal Navy had the armoured steel decks from the time they were built in the UK, a great many of the smaller escort carriers (known as Woolworth carriers) of the Royal Navy came from the USA, many transferring from the US Navy second hand before the USA got into the war. Britain did a deal swapping ships for bases in the Caribbean. So did these ex-US escort carriers have wooden decks in Royal Navy service? Or did the RN refit them all with steel decks?

Regarding Groundpounder's comment "
I would think that the ease of repair and replacement would be a huge factor as well as all of the other reasons mentioned."

I have spoken with a number of ex-Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilots who were onboard carriers hit by kamikaze aircraft, and they all said the steel deck was the simplest to repair. The Japanese aeroplane would hit, and make a small dent. Only the plane would burn, not the deck as in with the wooden decks on US carriers so the fire was minimal and easily controlled. They'd then sweep the wreckage into the sea and where the dent was they'd mix up and pour in quick set concrete. The deck was often in use again an hour later. No wooden decked carrier could turn around a major structural repair like that I'd bet.

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As top-heavy as the escort carriers were, I would be inclined to doubt that the British changed the wooden decks for armored ones. The escort carriers primary purpose was anti-submarine duty, which meant they would have not faced the same threats that the British Fleet Carriers faced, so a wooden deck would not be that overwhelming of a liability. Granted, the Royal Navy did use Escort Carriers for offensive operations (such as raids on Norwegian shipping, and covering the invasion of Southern France), but it seems they were okay with accepting those risks, which were significantly reduced from the dark days of 1940 through 1942 for the RN.

I recall chatting with one pilot who was on one of these Woolworth carriers. He said they patrolled as three Escort carriers, in this case HMS Stalker, HMS Dasher and one other I think. When returning from a scrap, he found his carrier had been hit in the deck by a bomb from a Ju88 I think it was. So he was forced to land on and spend the night on another of the three carriers, before returning in the morning after the deck had been repaired. So obviously it can't have been a spectacular explosion.

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